LOSING THE SENSE OF IMMORTALITY
A general statement
The "what" and "where" of God is still incomplete so long as we confine
our thought to the mere fragment of time measured by this earth life.
Though we have found the unity of all parts in the Christ life, yet that
unity is and can be but imperfectly realized by society on earth. A
longer time and a wider sphere must be considered if we are really to
know what God and man is. Therefore, God, man, and the universe must be
viewed in the light of endless time.
If in certain respects this generation is conspicuous for its lack of
faith, in other respects it is notable for its abundance of faith. The
new knowledge acquired along many lines instead of destroying our belief
in immortality is going to enrich it immeasurably when we have
thoroughly digested the facts. In the meantime some minds are bound to
be disquieted.
It is most fortunate that the majority of people seem able to accept the
fact of a future life as something altogether natural and inevitable.
Those who are not able to do so, however, appear to be increasing in
number. Yet we may rest assured that whatever will save the faith of
the doubting ones will enrich the faith of those who find it easy to
believe. And if those who doubt are not as numerous as sometimes
appears, so much the better. Whatever the real situation may be, it is
our privilege and duty to deepen and enrich our faith to the extent of
our ability. That so many express doubts on the subject of immortality
is something to be deplored and, if possible, remedied.
An old man, highly esteemed, despondingly said to me after the funeral
of his friend:
"We hope there is something beyond, but we do not know."
In response to my word of assurance, he grew even more pensive and
added, "No one has ever returned."
To say the least this life-long member of the Church saw nothing in
future prospects to cheer his declining years. As I gave his feeble hand
a warm clasp, I painfully realized that the light was fading from his
soul as well as from his eyes.
On my first visit after the funeral of a senior deacon, his widow
plaintively repeated the words of the old man:
"We hope there is something beyond, but we do not know."
My prompt response was immediately checked by a languid wave of the
hand, and an emphatic, "_No one_ can know."
This uncertain state of mind is in striking contrast with that of the
saints and martyrs; it cannot say, "To me, to live is Christ and to die
is gain."
Some highly honorable people tell me that they have no desire to live
again, and express wonder that anyone has such a desire. The good
influence we may leave behind us, they think, is immortality enough.
A general loss of faith in immortality, I am confident, would work
irreparable harm to society. It would completely destroy religion. The
Church, therefore, should do its utmost to keep alive a rational and
heartfelt assurance of immortality. This, I am sure, can be done
without, in any way, stultifying the intellect. In fact, the intellect
must be made our ally if we are to succeed.
At this point the remark of a woman ninety years old is very significant
and reassuring. After reading a popular book of the day on immortality,
she said:
"I did not like it. I do not want anyone to try to prove immortality by
science, because he cannot do it. I grasp the reality of a future life
with my whole being."
_Why are so many people losing their assurance of immortality?_
1. The contagion of doubt
There is a contagion of doubt as well as a contagion of faith. With
facts still favorable to a victory, an army may lose morale. When the
general and all his officers keep hopeful, their confidence works its
way down to the enlisted men. If the hopeful word is on many lips the
morale is saved, and the whole army is confident of victory. Witnessing
to any belief has a tremendous psychic influence for good or evil. The
facts concerning any great subject are never deeply analyzed by the
masses; yet the people possess a rare power for sensing the spirit of
their times.
In the fight for Eternal Life the morale of the Church is too low. The
confidence at the top is not always as rugged and commanding as it might
be. Too many college men are confused in a jumble of ideas, and some of
them, unfortunately, give their testimony on the side of doubt.
No one should give an insincere testimony for the sake of helping out a
weak cause. Yet many college men are greatly remiss in not giving more
careful consideration to a theme that vitally affects all human
interests.
At all events, the masses hear many expressions of doubt, and are not
slow to pass them on. A large number of people who stand aloof from the
Churches hear a dozen denials to one affirmation of belief in
immortality. Many radical socialists carry on a determined propaganda
against belief in immortality for political and economic reasons. They
say to the restless crowds:
"The Church is fooling you with the hope that the wrongs of this life
will be righted in another; but there is no other. If ever you get your
share of good things you must get it soon, for your life is short.
Therefore, down with the Church and king capital!"
I am not fearful for the grounds on which the assurance of this great
Christian belief rests, but I am disturbed over the prevalent ignorance
and indifference manifested.
2. The inability to make a religious use of modern knowledge
The Christian view of life in its relation to the whole body of modern
information has not been adequately given to the people. And they are
seriously affected in consequence of this neglect. That irreligion does
not tend toward assurance of immortality I regard as an incontrovertible
position. Yet to say that all doubt is due to a lack of Christian
devotion is not true. Many good Christians are confused, and seek help
to regain the comforting belief that death does not end all. All clearly
ascertained truth about the universe should prove a help to faith, but
until people know what to do with so many new facts, they prove a
decided hindrance.
Take for example just one popular subject of the day, physiological
psychology: When taught by men who have never grasped the Christian
philosophy of life, it affords the shortest possible road to atheism and
the denial of the human soul. This modern branch of learning, though the
finest of servants, is the meanest of masters. It has slain its
thousands. Physiological psychology has its own field of investigation,
but it is never safe when it parts company with sound philosophy.
3. The loss of a satisfying conception of the future life
In sharp contrast with former times, this generation has no satisfying
conception of the future life. And naturally an indefinite and hazy
future makes but slight appeal. Many instinctively turn from such a
future to save their peace of mind. They prefer something that is
definite and interesting. It is a matter of common experience that the
heart will not glow if there is no picture on the canvas. Unless we can
so adjust the lens of our minds as to project something more than
confused colors, we shall never bring back the former interest in a
future life. Unfortunately, there has not been much striving on the part
of the Church to construct a future that will harmonize with the newly
discovered constitution of the universe. And without this end in view
all striving would be in vain; nothing will avail that does not relate
the future to the divine framework of God's present Universe.
The common conception of heaven has been of something quite apart from
the existing world as we know it. Among all with whom I have conversed,
I have not found one who expects to have a physical body in the future
life. They have erroneously interpreted a "spiritual body" to mean a
spirit body. This crude idea of a spirit body is a fair sample of a
hundred other fancies and misconceptions.
When the commonly accepted idea of heaven became as distasteful to the
minister as it was to many of his congregation, he stopped preaching
about it. The laity may no longer be seen enjoying a rapturous
contemplation of future bliss. Instead, they accuse persons so inclined
of other-worldliness, and point out to them that they are not as good as
they might be here and now. So, for one reason or another we seldom give
more than a furtive glance at that which lies beyond the grave. In
proportion as the vision has gone from the mind, the sense has faded
from the soul. The old picture of heaven has become altogether
inadequate, and no other has been put in its place. Considering the
sudden transition through which the world has been passing, possibly
this stage of affairs was inevitable.
4. The growing habit of classifying the future with things unknown and
unknowable
At last there has arisen in the Church a considerable class that strives
to discourage any effort to inquire into the future life. "One world at
a time" is their motto. The future is classed among things unknown and
unknowable. This type of mind is trying to arouse interest in the
present by drawing attention from the future.
Said a woman professor to a student:
"If ministers would talk less of things about which they can know
nothing and do more to help those about them, they would show more sense
and accomplish a great deal more good."
I think I know some ministers who might do more for their environments,
but I happen to know of none who talk much about the future. This
teacher so enthusiastic over a fragment of the truth has never suspected
how meager and one-sided her education is. She has not grasped the
thought of our age which recognizes, above everything else, the unity
and solidarity of things. So she protests against any _rounded-out_
conception of life. It is not strange, therefore, that immortality is to
her a disagreeable theme that she would like to see tabooed.
A professional man once said to me:
"When you came on the train the other day our mutual friend, Mr. A.
said, 'There is the Parson,' and then nudging me remarked, 'Say, he
knows no more about the other world than we do, does he?'"
"So that is what you were talking about," I replied. "Well, I am
surprised. I thought you were modern men, and knew that there is no
other world. Science, philosophy, religion, and common sense, teach us
that there is but one world, a uni-verse. We now live in all the world
there is. But since we have not penetrated it very deeply, if your
friend had remarked that the minister was no more developed than you, or
that he had gone no deeper into the meaning of the universe than you, he
would at least have been on debatable ground. When, however, two men of
your opportunities could sit there and talk about another world, I am
ashamed of you. The universe is as much one as my watch is one. Every
particle of it enfolds us continually and never ceases to pour its
energies through us. Every part of the universe is beating upon us to
waken us, if possible, to its meaning. If I live for an eternity, I
shall be in the same world as now, and what I truthfully know about it
now will still be true after my body has decayed. God's one-world is the
only world."
No wonder that people become confused and mixed up with their plural
worlds, and broken fragments of worlds.
5. An inadequate conception of the Kingdom of God
More than a generation ago it came to us like a new discovery that while
Jesus rarely spoke of heaven, the expression, "Kingdom of Heaven," was
continually on His lips. This discovery turned the whole tide. And since
then, "The Kingdom of God on Earth" has been the theme of the Church.
While heartily agreeing with this discovery, and sympathizing with the
new aim, I still seriously doubt whether we have seen the kingdom of
heaven in any such full-orbed sense as Jesus intended we should. Too
often we unwittingly preach a kingdom of _earth_ on earth; we leave
something out. That which Jesus preached was somehow more religious.
Surely it is an inadequate kingdom of God when it, as so often happens,
degenerates into a _mere_ scientific cooking-school, or a _mere_
scientific system of sanitation, or a _mere_ several other things
lacking in God motive and God consciousness. The Kingdom of God is more
than a program of social service; it is a God-filled and God-ruled
society. A genuine Kingdom of God on earth will be pervaded by a
heavenly atmosphere. Even a social religion may become so unsocial as to
eliminate the Head of society; it may consign Him to the oblivion of
forgetfulness.
No woman, whose duty it is to be a cook, can be a perfect Christian
while she is careless about the preparation of food for her family. Yet
one may be a scientific cook without being a Christian. It requires more
than beautiful, material conditions to make the kingdom of God on earth.
I know families with beautiful mahogany dining rooms and all that goes
with them, whose good food is so well cooked that it almost melts in
their mouths, and yet they give God no thanks. Indeed, there are those
thus situated who think nothing about God.
This is not meant to imply that the conditions of poverty and ignorance
are any more favorable to a Christian life.
Coming one day from a poor family's home across the street, my little
son said:
"Papa, does Mr. R. love the Lord?" When I told him that I did not know,
"Well," he replied, "I don't believe he does, because he sat down at the
table to-day with his coat off and never thanked the Lord for his food.
He just looked around and said, 'Pass the taters,' and that is all he
said."
From what I knew of this poor man, he was probably neither more nor less
a pagan than the man with a mahogany dining room. The doctrine of the
kingdom of God on earth, with but little consciousness of God, is
surely increasing among rich and poor, both in the Church and out of the
Church. And as personal acquaintance with God goes, the assurance of
immortality invariably fades.
Many women, of varying degrees of intelligence and social standing, are
doing commendable social work for the love of humanity with but dim
consciousness of God. It has come to pass that fine women may whisk
about in silks and limousines visiting day-nurseries and the like
without bending the knee to the Father or remembering that the babies
are God's little ones. Yet no right-minded person wishes to diminish the
social service of this day by whomsoever rendered. On the contrary, he
feels that the Church which overlooks the poor babies should have a
millstone hanged about its neck and be cast into the sea. Nevertheless,
a kingdom without the consciousness of God in the hearts of its subjects
will never succeed in saving the assurance of immortality. The old
religion could not succeed without a bottom, and the new religion will
not succeed without a top. This topless kingdom, spreading far beyond
the Church, is making many feel that they are better off without the
Church. Some of these are sincere and substantial men and women, while
others of them are extremely superficial.
Many of the latter class will tell you with real self-appreciation that
they look after poor stray kitties, and feed the birdies in cold
weather, and in fact befriend all the animals. Really, they are too busy
with good works among animals and needy people to go to church and, as
one of them told me, they are not among the narrow-minded people anyway
"Who believe in hell."
This generation needs to learn the necessity, and the sane psychology,
of Christian experience. To put it plainly, it should be converted to
God. With God in our thoughts and affections we can hardly be too
careful about the material side of His kingdom; for the religion of
Jesus means the spiritualizing of the material, all the way from our
bodies to the end of the material forces that are at our command. Though
ever so many cups of cold water be given, if they are not given in His
name or with a consciousness of His share in the gift, the kindly deed
will not impart to us Christ's assurance of life eternal.
6. We automatically lose the assurance of the future when we lose the
reality of the present
Because he _has_ nothing in his ice-bound world, the Eskimo hopes for
nothing. There is nothing within his present grasp that suggests great
things to come. Whereas, the civilized man hopes for a glorious future
not yet attained because he sees that the present warrants such a hope.
No one can reasonably hope for that which the present does not justify.
Only let him be sure that he knows the present. Men who miscalculate the
future usually do so because they fail to apprehend the present facts.
We cannot judge what the fruit will be unless we know the particular
variety of tree. The future history of the universe depends upon whether
there is a God _now_. Either there is or there is not a God. If there
is, the one not knowing Him has a very superficial knowledge of the
world that now is. A God-projected and a God-filled world will have a
very different future from a world of mindless ether and mindless
electrons. The discovery of electricity and some knowledge of its
behavior were necessary before men could dream of electric cars and
electric lights. When electricity and some of the laws were known,
however, the dream was unavoidable, and like many another rational
prediction it has come true. When the thought of God fades, Christian
hope dies. If one is only _agnostic_ with reference to the existence of
God, he is simply agnostic on the subject of immortality. In exact
proportion as we lose connection with the deeper realities of the
present, we forfeit insight into the future. As one who is entirely
ignorant of chemistry has no criteria by which to judge the future of
chemistry, so the one having no personal consciousness of God, nor clear
vision of the deeper meanings of life, has no data for a rational
prediction of the future. Paul said that the rulers of his day did not
know spiritual things, or they "Would not have crucified the Lord of
glory." Not knowing God, naturally they did not recognize His purpose
when they met it in the character and teachings of Jesus; so they
ignorantly put Jesus to death. Things which their eyes saw not and their
ears heard not, were recognized by those who knew God. "For who among
men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in
him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But
we received the spirit which is from God; that we might know."
Our expectations for the future always rise spontaneously out of our
vision of the present. Whether it will rain within the next forty-eight
hours I can but imperfectly predict because I recognize but a few vague
weather conditions. The weather bureau, however, with many more present
facts at its command may predict with far greater certainty.
The man who knows nothing but a material universe cannot believe in
immortality. Any effort to convince him is but a waste of breath. If he
is right in thinking that the universe has no soul, then he is right in
believing that there is no future life.
The Soul--granting that it has a Soul--is the best part of the universe.
To have lost God, therefore, is to have lost the best part of reality.
And the loss does not end here, for, in the best sense, we have lost the
world also. Though its chemistry and physics remain the same, its higher
meaning and finer uses no longer exist, for us, when God is eliminated.
To comprehend the universe we must know it philosophically, poetically,
and religiously, as well as scientifically. Some unwisely think that to
know it scientifically and poetically is enough. If the forces of nature
are energies proceeding from an Infinite Mind, and if we might so use
these forces as to express His wisdom and love in all human relations,
then the universe is fundamentally different from the atheist's world.
The one who does not recognize an infinite Mind of love and
righteousness, must prostitute the world to uses lower than the highest.
And as soon as he does this he has not only lost the Soul of the
universe, but in the very finest sense he has lost the body of the
universe as well. On such a poor foundation, his common sense saves him
from the folly of trying to build a temple that pierces the skies. He
may still remain a gentleman, and have a most kindly and unselfish
disposition within certain limits, but at a thousand points he will find
his will at right angles with the one who lives in a different
world,--in a world that warrants the long look. I have experienced the
world from both points of view. And though my common conduct did not
vary greatly, yet when I was deeply conscious of God, and saw the
universe all vibrant with His thought and love, my life in its inner
meaning and quality was different from center to circumference.
Here, then, is the crux of the whole matter. In so far as we have lost
the assurance of a future life, it is because we have lost so much of
the present that what remains of it is not sufficient to arouse a lively
anticipation of immortality. True, our sense of reality is oppressively
intense in the physical realm; we clutch, with death-like grip, that
from which the Soul has escaped. But the husk will not support spiritual
life nor give assurance of the life to come.